User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Groove Tunes
a Casual Listener

Date Reviewed: April 17, 2006

Bottom Line:

I had been a long time admirer of the Onkyo for the punch/power that it gave you when listening to stereo music. What I discovered with this model is that it that it still has the power or punch that I liked but it was a tad bit bright for my taste. I had to make multiple adjustment and speaker placement modifications until I got a somewhat warm rich sound that I was looking for. For the price I guess I shouldn't complain too much. This receiver would make a very good entry level receiver for home theatre but a less than desirable one for stereo /music listening. The listening modes for movies are more than adequate but nothing really blows you away. This receiver does allow very easy set up and flexibility. More than enough inputs and outputs. The remote is much more than one could expect from a receiver priced in this range. So if I had to some it up I would say a very good receiver for Home Theatre and an average receiver for music listening.

I had a Denon AVR1603 5.1 DD receiver and used the infinity primus 250 speakers with the entra 2 sub. I thought it sounded good, but was missing something. I let my father have the infinity speakers. He has an onkyo ...494 DD reciever. I couldn't belive how much better they sounded on his unit. The denon had much more midrange and less highs and lows. Even the sub sounded better on the onkyo. I sold the Denon and purchased the Onkyo SR601. I think this unit is far superior in power and sound quality compared to the denon. I don't want to put denon down because I feel they intended the unit to have the "midrange" sound, but if you are into more highs and lows try onkyo. I am really glad I bought this unit.

Excellent performer in this price range! Had this reciever for a few days and I am very happy with my purchase. Has basically everything you would need unless your really anal about having the top of the line. Gobuys.com has a deal of 353.00 shipping was 17.00 bucks! I was truly tickled when I hooked everything up. Took about and 1-2 hours to setup but changed all my speaker wire to some heavy duty Monster. At this price I think it's a steal.

First off the MSRP above it wrong, it isn't $380, it is $499. Now, with that out of the way... my little review. I am EXTREMELY impressed with this reciever. The 85watts/channel pushes my Polk R30's and R20's very hard, I have never heard them sound this good. Music playback sounds fantastic in stereo, but I also enjoy Neo6:music and the awesome ALL STEREO modes. There are enough DSP choices to make anyone happy, but most will stick with regular stereo or the DIRECT mode, witch sends the signal directly to the fron L/R speakers with no additional processing, producing a purer sound. Movie playback is where this reciever shines through however. I watched some of my favorite movies after setting this thing up and I am floored everytime. I am hearing things that I never heard before. The amound of detail is astounding and I am able to reach volume levels that will probably get me evicted. The 601 was also very easy to setup. It features video upconversion composite to s-video, so connecting all your video sources is a breeze. It also features two sets of component video inputs. The onscreen display allows you to setup most everything: speaker size, distance, crossover points (60hz-120hz), etc... Onkyo has also included a VERY helpful feature called Intellivolume. This allows you to set the volume of each input seperately, that way when you switch from, lets say, your cable box to your DVD player.. the volumes can finally match, instead of having to instantly reach for the remote because the sound is blaringly loud on on source and whisper quiet on another. The build quality is also excellent, this is a heavy reciever, but not overly hefty, weighing about 27lbs. Binding posts for all speaker terminals, high current amps and a very well thought out learning remote make this reciever well worth full MSRP. In my research, no reciever at this price point can really compete. It also comes in silver, so for those of us who like silver components, we have the choice.